Fun, Fun, Fun Crossley ID Guide Giveaway

The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds (read Corey’s review) is undeniably one of the most exciting and innovative bird guides to come along in a long time. I for one couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book, loved it at first sight, and appreciate it even more after a month’s study. How about you… would you like to get your hands on the Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds?

Our dear friends at Princeton University Press, home of so many indispensable and inspired birding books, has graciously offered three copies of the new Crossley ID Guide for 10,000 Birds readers. But don’t celebrate just yet: we’re going to make you work for them!

Want a copy? Read on…

1. Predict the future of bird guides
My feeling is that Richard Crossley has broken new ground with this latest work, pioneering sophisticated techniques to inculcate advanced avian identification skills. Spend some time pondering his plates and soon you’ll begin to grasp that elusive “giss” (General Impression of Size and Shape) all the best birders seem to recognize in their quarry. While this effort is clearly an extension of his terrific work with Michael O’Brien and Kevin Karlson on the seminal Shorebird Guide, Crossley’s new work represents a quantum leap in both philosophy and form.

You have a chance to win our first copy of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by sharing your views on what the NEXT big step will be in bird guide design, philosophy, or technology. Predict the future of bird guides produced in any medium in the next 10 years. Go on… I’m sure you think about this all the time! Any serious submission of 100 words or fewer will place its author in a random drawing for our first copy of the new Crossley ID Guide.

2. Talk about your favorite plate in The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds
This guide is overwhelmingly, unrepentantly visual. The impact of those rich, dynamic plates delivers an unprecedented dose of ornithological information per square inch packed with so much potency that readers are sometimes left reeling. Sounds good, right? Obviously, your typical bird chaser seems to think so, since so many copies of The Crossley ID Guide have already been snapped up!

Why should early adopters be punished for their passion? Getting hold of our second copy of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds requires access to a first copy, yours or someone else’s. How else can you tell us about which plate in The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds is your favorite and why. Which birds benefit most from the frenetic layouts? Which backgrounds best capture your imagination? Which plates pack the most educational power? Any serious submission of 100 words or fewer will place its author in a random drawing for our second copy of the new Crossley ID Guide. You may, of course, choose to have this copy sent to someone else 🙂

3. Promote this giveaway!
They also serve who share the news about giveaways like these. We can’t credit you for shouting about it from the rooftops, but can reward anyone who links, tweets, stumbles, or facebook shares or likes this post. Each specific example of promotion counts as one entry in a random drawing for our third copy of the new Crossley ID Guide. However, you’ll only get credit for what you tell us you’ve done, either through comments or via email.

So, to summarize, Princeton University Press has granted us three copies of The (Awesome) Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds to give away to readers. We have established three different paths by which any person, reader or not, can receive one of these copies:

Tell the future of bird guides produced in any medium in the next 10 years.

Tell us about which plate in The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds is your favorite and why.

Tell people about this giveaway through links, tweets, likes, etc.

All submissions should be sent to mike AT 10000birds DOT com by Friday, March 18. That’s right… you’ve got one week to spread the news, predict the future of bird guides, and describe your favorite Crossley plate. Better get cracking!

(Note that this giveaway has no cash value, is not open to me or Corey, and will be conducted fairly and reasonably. I plan to publish the submissions — the good ones anyway — in posts addressing the topics in question. By sending in a submission for this giveaway, you consent to having that submission published on 10,000 Birds.)

Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.

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7 Comments

Kimberly

March 13, 2011 3:31:53 pm

I tweeted the link, and I shared it on facebook too! Now to go write my essay….

I think the future bird books will have some sort of digital component that you can take out into the field and identify birds. Perhaps a chip that you insert into your digital binoculars, look at the bird, and it identifies it for you.